Episode 104: The Creative Process in Action — Susan McGreevy-Nichols

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This week on 5.6.7.EIGHT, Aleksandra interviews Susan McGreevy-Nichols, Executive Director at the</span> <a href="https://www.ndeo.org/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">National Dance Education Organization</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">(NDEO).</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Prior to her current role, she taught part-time at Loyola Marymount University and was a national consultant on Arts Education. Also, as a three-decades-long teacher at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island, Susan founded and developed that institution’s nationally renowned middle school dance program. On top of all of this, she is an author who has written and published five books.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As an arts educator, Susan realizes the value of harnessing the creating process, both inside and outside of the arts. In fact, during her run as an educator, Susan has developed a cutting-edge reading comprehension strategy that uses text as inspiration for original choreography, created by children. On the podcast, Susan speaks to how the creative process drives everything she does — her work, her books, her curriculum, her life — and how the arts world uses the creative process to train thinkers, even more so than dancers or artists.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Moving Quotes:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I don't focus well. I multitask. But, because of that, it's made me very creative. That's why I feel that I've become a very creative problem solver. I attack everything thinking, 'Okay, I'm going to make this work.' And it all goes back to the creative process."</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The cognitive processes involved in creating dance really help you be a better learner, a better thinker — a thinking dancer... The work I do focuses on creating thinkers and making dance for everybody."</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"As a dance studio owner, y